NASA and a Battelle business that manages the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory are calling for initial designs of a fission surface power system that can support future missions on the moon.
A newly released solicitation from Battelle Energy Alliance and NASA details a need for a power source that can withstand lunar environments and provide energy to the space agency’s lunar missions without relying on sunlight, Idaho National Lab said Friday.
“I expect fission surface power systems to greatly benefit our plans for power architectures for the moon and Mars and even drive innovation for uses here on Earth,” commented Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s space technology mission directorate.
Interested companies from the nuclear and space industries can submit responses to the request for proposals on or before Feb. 19.
The FSP project is being funded by NASA in partnership with INL and DOE.
